Report 1372
Report #1372 Skillset: Ecology Skill: Rebirth Org: Harbingers Status: Completed Aug 2015 Furies' Decision: Solution 1+2+3. Problem: Ecology is bad, and commune bards have nothing that compares to tarot. I'll describe the problem better later 0 R: 0 Solution #1: Give an added unique effect for each familiar animal type for when the familiar attacks a target. On an 8 second time. Bat = 150 bleeding. Widow = afflicts with whatever venom is present on BOND ENVENOM (basically free familiarsting). Viper = 300ish posion damage. Tarantula = covers you in the itchy hairs that cause off balance for 1 second. 0 R: 0 Solution #2: Badger = 150 bleeding. Fox = 300 cutting damage. vixen = 1 second off balance (runs between their legs and trips them). Owl = blindness (rakes their eyes). 0 R: 0 Solution #3: In addition to 1 and 2: Remove the restrictions on gender. The male bonds (tarantula and badger) are far superior to their female counterparts Player Comments: ---on 8/6 @ 18:35 writes: Solution 3 should be to open all bonds to all available sexes. I will brainstorm some possibilities for the Serenwilde attacks. ---on 8/6 @ 23:51 writes: Agreed! Women get the shaft on the bonds, which is annoying ---on 8/11 @ 02:35 writes: Bonds currently attack every 12 seconds, dealing ~150 damage and ~15 bleeding. ---on 8/14 @ 01:08 writes: Sure ---on 8/14 @ 02:58 writes: 3 is fine, not willing to support 2 without an actual solution presented (reports finalize soon), 1 is fine. ---on 8/14 @ 03:22 writes: If the Serenwilde envoys are fine with solution 2, I'm fine with all of the solutions as proposed as well. The two solutions seem mostly equal. It would really have been nice to get a more detailed problem statement describing the problems for those of us not as familiar with the exact details of eco-versus- tarot, though. Given that more experienced envoys who also have access to tarot seem to agree with the problem, though, I don't have any objections. ---on 8/14 @ 04:17 writes: My ecology knowledge is pretty nonexistent so I can't comment very intelligently, but the proposed effects seem reasonable. ---on 8/14 @ 20:27 writes: The free poison attack needs to either become a feature of all bonds (preferred), or not be a feature of just one type that only Glomdoring has. Besides that, cutting is not equitable with poison damage - the damage type should either be different or be more for the fox than it is for the viper. ---on 8/15 @ 02:30 writes: Well it's been a week and it was crickets, so you get what you get. ---on 8/15 @ 04:18 writes: (that was tongue in cheek, please offer your own. I'll put them up) ---on 8/16 @ 17:52 writes: Sorry, I've been busy and I failed to put up a proper statement. The problem is that commune bards do not have access to a sufficient tertiary. Glamours, which is overlooked by city bards for tarot, is still considerably better for commune bards that ecology because ecology offers only 1) smudges (which unlike runes/tarot/etc. does not allow for prepared smudges, so to use more than one requires the ecologist to prepare the smudge then light it followed by a burning delay), 2) self rezz which is very useful, 3) a charm for dmp that can be useful for PVE but because the charms are severely limited in how many types they can cover, have only marginal use in pk, and 4) familiar powers of which only famliar sting (3 power for a rapid application of passive venoms) is useful. Ecology offers a wide array of utility that is all very situational, and commune bards often choose glamours because the passive effects (off eq, passive room wide affs, 50% damage mitigation with illusoryself, etc) of glamours far surpass the active actions ecology requires. This generally means that among the bard tertiaries, ecology is behind glamours, which is behind tarot. My solution maintains the spirit of ecology and the bond ecologists create with their familiars, while giving bards a passive effect that is flexible enough to combine with their existing effects while not creating significant conflict with druids and sap mechanics. ---on 8/17 @ 14:41 writes: I forgot to consider druids, and with that in mind, I'm not a fan of free poison attack in combination with sap. Change that up to be something that doesn't perpetuate a saplock, like sensitivity (that doesn't strip deafness, like hexes) and should be ok. ---on 8/17 @ 17:48 writes: If the bond attack effect doesn't work while the bond is busy doing something else (like stinging), it won't be a problem with druids. 1 shruggable poison every 8 seconds when you aren't allowed to use active poisons (fetish would have to be in armor mode for BOND ENVENOM to work, and therefore for that passive effect) is nothing to write home about. The Druid will either be using familiar sting or (more likely) have their familiar unarmored so that they can use their fetish actively for more responsive and powerful poison afflicting. ---on 8/18 @ 00:39 writes: On this one I agree with Enyalida. If it turns off during familiarsting, I don't see the issue. Passive embeded runes can accomplish the same thing, so if it's not an issue with runes, not sure why it would be for ecology (espeically since ecology will be weaker since it is shruggable) ---on 8/18 @ 18:23 writes: Are you ordering the familiar to sting? If you're ordering the familiar to sting and it has a passive 8 second balance (like fae or angels), you can effectively time when it's going to hit, adding it into a sap-burst. Sure, it's subject to shrugging, but still too much in my opinion. Sap doesn't need that help. ---on 8/20 @ 00:14 writes: Yeah but again, you can time a fused rune. It's actually weaker than a fused rune because you can shrug it. It's actually far slower than familiarsting which would be much more successful (especially with snakebond with that one snake that shrivels arms...viper?) at maintaining a saplack. I totally get the not wanting to buff sap thing, I just don't think this does when you consider the alternatives ---on 8/20 @ 02:02 writes: Testing with Crek just now, runes are firing between 9-11 seconds, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, so you can't really time them as reliably as a burst from passive bond envenom. Regardless, I'm not really in support of it still for the reasons explained. I think a much better option can be found. ---on 8/25 @ 20:50 writes: Broken arms do not hinder curing sap. ---on 8/30 @ 00:28 writes: Well i'm open to suggestions and willing to change, but I also don't see it as a significant issue with sap so I'm not going to change it without a better suggestion. ---on 8/30 @ 00:29 writes: Well i'm open to suggestions and willing to change, but I also don't see it as a significant issue with sap so I'm not going to change it without a better suggestion. ---on 8/31 @ 00:22 writes: Support Solution 3.